Police Vehicle Auctions: Avoiding costly mistakes

This is Page 1of 2 on police vehicle auctions. To read the first part, visit: police auto auctions. 

So what other steps do you need to follow to successfully ‘navigate’ your way through a police auction? 

Step 2 

Research the Vehicle Identification number. If you don’t know what this is, it’s simply a distinctive serial number employed by the auto industry with the goal of identifying motor vehicles. This number can usually be located in a few different spots in your car. These are near the dashboard, the driver’s door or under the hood. So why is this number so important? With this number you can easily get a very detailed report on the car’s history. This is great, as it means that for little or no cost (for a general report) you can see if the car has been in an accident, had any water and/or fire damage or even been stolen. With this information you will be positioned to ‘paint a picture’ on the car’s history and determine if some of its problems are too great to bear. This way you can ‘eliminate’ some cars on your list that you don’t wish to buy at the police vehicle auction.    

Click here for police car auctions in your area

Step 3 

Furthermore, ensure that the vehicle has a clean title. Clean title simply refers to the fact that there are no outstanding lien by another entity on the vehicle. This should be a crucial part of your vetting process, as the consequences can be severe if you were to buy a car at the auction with outstanding liens on it. You can easily check this by contacting your local state licensing department. They will be able to verify if a title is both valid and clear. 

Step 4 

Determine the market value of the vehicle. You can do a quick evaluation by visiting the AutoTrader website and performing a lookup on any given make or model. Alternatively, use the Kelley Blue book. Some believe you should never leave home without it. This is a book that provides indicative valuations and prices on vehicles and is therefore an uncompromisingly important resource if you want to be successful bidding at auctions. With this book you’ll know when a price is too high or relatively low.  

All of these steps serve as merely a run-up to the day of the auction. If you follow this blueprint, by now you would have short-listed a few vehicles that look promising from a mechanical, legal, technical and valuation perspective. Now you need to determine what the maximum value is which you will be willing to pay for each of the cars respectively. This price will be your maximum ‘comfortability’ level. Anything more than this price and the car will become ‘expensive’ in relation to your calculations.     

Once bidding starts it’s important not to bid straight away. Even though you set a price for yourself, there is no need to show others immediately that you are interested. Let the bidding run for a few seconds and see how it goes. If there is little interest, you may get away with a price much lower than what you budgeted for. If there there’s an active bidding for the car however, STICK TO YOUR PRICE. Just because your fellow bidders are willing to pay more than your previously calculated price, it doesn’t mean you should too. Trust the hard work and research you’ve done beforehand and stick to your guns. 

To ensure that they remain objective at all times, some bidders even take their friends with to police vehicle auctions. The strategy is simple. They aren’t emotionally connected to the process whatsoever. They are ‘distanced’ and have a cool outlook on activities. They serve as ‘safety net’ and will help to keep you, the bidder, under control.  

Police auctions have a variety of cars which bidders can choose from. Armed with good research you are sure to strike it lucky at these events.  

Want to locate your nearest police vehicle auction?   If you answered yes, then I strongly recommend you to check out Gov-Auctions.   Their extensive database is constantly updated with hundreds of auctions in every state around the country. You will be hard pressed to find better vehicles, at a lower cost anywhere else. Click here to check it out!